The Decision
by GermanMLG
Summary: Please make sure to understand the world of the Triology before reading. 16 year old Sephora North is Dauntless born but never belonged in there. At the chossing ceremony, she gets a chance to find a better life in another faction and just a few months after initiation started, she gets in her first trouble and discovers unknown feelings. Will she follow her head or her heart ?
1. Chapter 1 :The last hours of unchosen

**Chapter 1: The last hours of unchosen**

"Hey Seph , wake up !" I pull my bedsheet over my head and grouse : "No Drake, please. Just five more minutes!", "You know, you can't so get up, it's time for our aptitude tests." Just one reason more to stay in bed but I can't help but get up. I don't want to stay here, everyone expects me to become a leader of the Dauntless one day, just like my mother but not with me ! I don't want to stay at a place, where everyone wants me to be like my parents, who never really cared about me ! I don't belong here, and this test is my only chance to get somewhere better, even if I don't know where at the moment.

Hurrying to the bathroom I start to ask myself how Drake, my best friend, managed to enter my apartment but he just answers :" You should know me well enough after all this time !", he smiles and I just shake my head while we ran up to the other 16 year old Dauntless, who are going to choose a faction this year.

The whole way in the train, I speculate, where I should transfer too and as Drake notices my thoughtfulness, he asks :" What's wrong?", but I just answer that everything is okay. The rest of the ride, we stay silent.

Half an hour later, Drake and I are standing in front of steel doors and as they open, we step in to take our tests. My supervisor is Tori from the Dauntless. I had seen her before, but never talked to her. She tells me to take a seat and as I do she hands me a glass of strange liquor, which I can't identify. As I hesitate, she just says :" Drink it." After I drank that sizzlingly tasting liquor, I lean to the chair I'm sitting on and as I relax, my view gets dark...

_-Sorry for the short chapter,I just couldn't find another way to start this story and explain the current situation, but I hope you enjoyed. More information about Sephora are going to be released in later Chapters._

_See you in the next Chapter !_


	2. Chapter 2: Simulated World

**Chapter 2: Simulated World**

As I open my eyes, I'm standing in a room with just one table in it. I step forward and see three things laying on it; a blue book, a scythe and a bunch of supply-packs, which the Abnegation hand to the factionless. I reach out for the book as suddenly an earthquake begins shaking the floor and a big gap with lava in it opens. The book somehow falls into the gap and I could jump after it but I decide not to. I turn and suddenly hear a man from the Candor asking me, if I had seen a blue book, but I lie to him because otherwise he could blame me for not rescuing it from the lava. As I answered, the man left through a door that appeared out of nowhere and suddenly I wake up from the simulation, noticing it as such.

After some time, Tori looks at me and says: " That's it, you're result is Erudite." I must stare at her in my shock, because suddenly she smiles and opens the door.

I go back to the trails where Drake waits for me. "What's your result ? Did you get Dauntless?", is the first thing he says with wide opened eyes. As I didn't answer, he really asks if I'm Divergent, but I don't answer. I realise he is speaking with me and wildly shake my head immediately: " No, you Idiot. Me and Divergent...I can't believe you think it's possible that I am ! ", I say, smiling at him.

"But what is your result. Tell me please, I won't laugh, I promise !", he shouts and I don't have a Chance so I decide to make it a little interesting; I ask him what he thinks and then he answers Amity, which I can see as a compliment, I think, but I shake my head.

" Try agin, stupid", I laugh and he rapidly answers " Then it must be Candor." I smile again. "You've got Abnegation, right ? " he asks and I just tilt my head and stare at him. " Seph, just tell me, that you've got Abnegation." He says. " So you really want me to leave your side ?", I annoy him and poke him into his cheek."No, I'm just curious, tell me, now, or I will punch you right in your face! " he laughs, rising his fist. " you won't",I know him to well. "Seph, then tell me." I guess it wont help and so I say, after a big sigh: " Ok, I'll tell you, but just if you'll tell me your result afterwards." When he's promised it, I sigh again and finally say:" I've got Erudite! " He stares at me as if I recently murdered someone, just in front of him. I made him speechless.


	3. Chapter 3: The Choosing Ceremony

**Chapter 3: The coosing Ceremony - Moment of Truth**

I still lay in my bed, dreaming of a big hamburger, as Drake is shouting at me again, to finally get up.

Today, I'm choosing a way, my life will take for the rest of it, one decision, and my life will change.

I don't want to leave my bed, but I have to and so I'm running to the bathroom again, hurrying to get ready and moments later, we're sitting in the train to the ceremony."You still haven't told me what your test result was.", I say, but Drake ignores me. I poke his cheek,"You promised ! You have to tell me now !" He sighs and answers: „It's Candor."

I have to laugh, I didn't expect this. Everyone else in the train is silent. I wonder, what faction Drake is going to choose, but I don't even know what my choice will be.

As we enter the hall, the other factions already sat down and are now silently talking, as they hear our laud voices, they look a little scared. We take a seat and after some time, the ceremony starts and an Erudite woman in a blue dress enters the stage. Her hair short and fair, pale, ivory toned skin and a perfect figure, a narrow and detailed, beautiful jawline.

Just so you know, some Dauntless think Drake is my boyfriend but that's impossible because he's gay. I ever thought, I'm not but as I see her, I'm not sure about it anymore. I must've stared at her, because now Drake taps on my shoulder and as I turn to him he says, smiling over his whole face :"Stop staring at her, she will notice it." I slightly punch into his stomach and the woman in blue beginns to speak :

"The faction system is a living being composed of cells, all of you. And the only way it can survive and thrive is for each of you to claim your rightful place. The future belongs to those who know where they belong...When we will leave this room, you will no longer be dependence but full fledged members of our society. Faction before blood!" "Faction before blood !", Everyone repeats.

Claps erode from the seats as she has finished and then she looks at her tablet and calls out the first names of the future initates .

Still without a clue, what I should choose, I stare at her again, her eyes are focused on her tablet, lips pursed obviously deep in focus, her posture still perfectly straight and poised. As I hear her calling out my name, I feel my hands getting sweaty and I hurry down on the stage; everyone is staring at me, awaiting my choice. The blue dressed woman hands me the ceremonial knife and I can see her eyes, watery gray, boring in mine. I take a deep breath before I cut my palm. I feel a short, piercing pain going through my hand and I hold my hand over the Dauntless bowl, containing hot stones, but in the last second, before my blood drops on the stones, I pull my hand over to the water containing Erudite bowl, on the right side of the Dauntless bowl. My blood drops and the woman proclaims: „Erudite", and the Erudite representatives clap. I take a sterile plaster-strip and sit down next to an Erudite boy, now, Drake is going to choose; he cuts his palm and his blood drops onto the glass panels of the Candor bowl. "Candor" and the black and white dressed people cheer.

The rest of the ceremony I can only think of what the woman said;"The future belongs to those who know where they belong." Did I choose the right faction? In any case, it's to late for me now, I can't transfer to another anymore, I'll have to fit in or I'll become factionless, which is worse than being dead.

The Erudite are the last ones to leave the Hub. We quietly exit the building through the Erudite designated door, after taking the elevator down and we enter cars, which will bring us to the Erudite-headquarters.


	4. Chapter 4:A new home

**Chapter 4: A new home **

I notice a jerk and hastily wake up; it looks like I fell asleep as we drove. The girl next to me smiles at me friendly, as I turn to see where we are: „ So you're awake. My name is Mary, by the way.","My names Sephora.", I answer. The Amity girl suddenly points at a tower, we can now see through the window of the car we're siting in. „ This looks amazing.", Mary shouts and our driver, an old man, looks annoyed in his rearview mirror. „ So that's gonna be our new home ?!",she shouts again, the driver just looking more annoyed, I slightly tap my elbow in her side and whisper: „ You probably should talk less. There's no reason in speaking out loud what we're all thinking, is it ?" Mary looks surprised but happily we've already arrived, so we exit the car and then we walk into our new home, the Erudite-Headquarters.

As we've all gathered in the large lobby, the woman from the ceremony appears through a lot of busy Erudite, entering a balcony to speak to us :"My name is Jeanine Matthews, leader of Erudite, and I am happy to see so many future members of our faction. But before you can become a full member of Erudite, you need to get through initiation, which means:

You are required to take a battery of tests in the natural sciences, social sciences, mathematics, logic, computer science, humanities, such as history, philosophy or literature, and English. You must pass all the tests to continue with

identifying a field for further study. After that, you will take courses in all the aforementioned academic areas in addition to your selected field(s). If you pass all the classes you are asked to complete a research project or thesis on a specific topic within your chosen field. Once the project or thesis, your transcripts, test scores, and writing samples are approved by a committee or me, and you pass a minimum academic requirement of 80 points for transfers and 90 points for Erudite, you will become a full member of Erudite after passing a final IQ-Test and a simulation.

But first you need to know what's behind the name Erudite;

We submit the following statements as truth:

"Ignorance" is defined not as stupidity but as lack of knowledge.

Lack of knowledge inevitable leads to disconnect among people with differences.

Lack of understanding leads to a disconnect among people with differences.

Disconnection among people with differences leads to conflict.

Knowledge is the only logical solution to the problem of conflict.

Therefore, we propose that in order to eliminate conflict, we must eliminate the disconnect among those with differences by correcting the lack of understanding that arises from ignorance with knowledge.

But first , your Instructors will teach you and show you the compound. Erudite born, your guide will be Edward. Transfers will be guided by Hannah.

I hope most off you will pass the initiation process.", Jeanine finishes, turns and walks away.

Hannah and Edward come from the balcony and show us initates the very large tower. As Hannah has shown us everything and we got our ID-Cards, she brings us to our dorm and says: „Okay, it may be good if you change your clothes now. Then just take dinner and go to bed, we will start studying tomorrow. Breakfast is form 7am to 8am, lunch at 1pm until 1:30pm and dinner takes place from 7 to 8 pm. The first three days I'll wake you guys up and guide you to your lessons if you can't find the room, but after these days, you'll have to do it on you own.", with that, she turns and walks away and everyone chooses beds. In our dorm, there are forty beds and one large bathroom. I choose the bed in the last row in the corner, because I want to be on my own, but Maya soon chooses the bed next to mine and so I have to deal with her. I'm not hungry and so, after I changed into a blue pyjama, that lay with some other clothes in the locker next to my bed ( a white blouse with a dark blue blazer, a pair of trousers that match my blazer and some dark blue flats, different changing clothes, light blue towels and some bathroom utensils), I lay in my bed and just try to process everything that has happened today as I slowly fade into a deep, dreamless sleep...


	5. Chapter 5:The first part of initiation

**Chapter 5: First part of initiation **

On the next day, Hannah wakes us at 5:30pm but I was already awake since 5pm and thinking about the new life I'll have to fit in from now on. I just came up with finishing initiation, so I don't get factionless, and then looking for some interesting studies or just doing some useful inventions.

On the way to breakfast, Maya asks me where I had been at dinner yesterday, I answer I weren't hungry, but tired and so I went to bed. After I took some pancakes at the Buffet, I sit with Maya and a boy called Ruben, he was Erudite born. We were talking about the initiation tests as he warns us :" Beware of Jeanine, she uses anyone to her own purpose."

After breakfast, Hannah brings us to our classroom, in wich we have our first lessons in the lot of subjects, we will be tested in and we will have to show up until 8:15pm. The lessons are 1 hour for one subject, seven of them every day, and two hours for homework and research. Every Sunday, we take tests, of the frequently learned. And I'm doing quite well, I think.

four weeks and some good marks later_

I'm up early again and very excited to see our results, which we will get at our breakfast today. Just one walk to the dinning hal and one more time getting some food from the buffet, one more talk to Maya, who got noticeable more quiet,and Ruben, how they are and what they think about our results as Hannah and Edward show up on a balcony, greeting: " Good morning Initiates, after one moth of learning most of you did really well, others weren't as good as expected but congratulations, all of you passed, witch happens the first time since 150 years. But as all of you want to see their exact results, we will show them on the screens on the wall below us; the right one for Erudite born and the left one for transfers. Just so you know you still haven't finished all parts of the initiation process and so it could happen, that some of you won't pass all of them."

The screens get activated and as I check the first placed, I see my name, standing on the first place of the list for transfers. Even through I couldn't get all 100 points because I didn't manage to get all of those who were available in mathematics, I still got 99,256 points and this is just AMAZING. I knew I studied very much but I never expected this. Ruben got place three as third of Erudite born and Maya reached rank five of the transfers. We all did very good but as Hannah and Edward said, we still haven't passed full initiation.


	6. Chapter 6: Another choice to make

**Chapter 6: another choice to make**

„You are now required to choose an academic field and take some courses wich you will have to pass to take the final IQ-Test.You can choose either one or more fields, but as well as the number of courses you'll have to take, the Difficulty of your final Examen will rise. You can choose from the following fields;

-History

-Biology

-Chemistry

-Physics

-Mathematics

-Communication

-Psychology

-Sociology

-Philosophy

-Astronomy

-Engineering

You can choose until tomorrow when you will be asked for you choice at breakfast and afterwards be lead to your first course. You can only pick another or a new course, after you've finished one, but then you will have less time to study so pick wisely."

With that they turn and walk away.

We look confused at watch other; what will we choose,will we pass ?

The rest of the day we got time to decide our fields and I decide to go to the library, searching for some information what those courses will be about.

Ruben and Maya come with me, already searching for explicit fields, while I still can't decide what I could want to choose. After I got some books about any of the fields, I sit down and begin reading, totally forgetting the time and as I rise up from my current book, it's already half past 6pm and I'm getting hungry. Luckily I'm reading the last book and so I hurry up finishing it, bring them back to the shelves, and go to the dinning hal to eat dinner and then just go to bed, because I'm very exhausted of reading all day.

Laying in my bed an hour later, I'm thinking about the fields; I know I'm not very good at maths but I'm good at kind of every other field, which eases the decision in no way.I realize, I've still got no clue, but then Maya and Ruben show up so I ask them and they have got a clue of their courses;

Maya will take Sociology, Communication, Philosophy and History

and Ruben will choose Mathematics, Psychology, Astronomy and Engineering.

As I notice there are just three subjects left, I choose to take Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Engineering.

As I've decided, we go to bed and instantly fall asleep.

On the next day we'll have to decide which courses we will take and so I'm up early again, watching the sunset on a balcony I've found in one of our first weeks here, when I was searching for a room.I think about the first part of initiation and how I studied every day and nearly every night, just having a few hours of sleep before I'm going back to the library, going on with my studies and not even a minute of free time. But all of this has been worthwhile so far.

And in this way I will pass the next stage of initiation too, I will study harder than everyone has studied before. I can't fail the second part after being the best one in first part of initiation. "I can do this, and I will do this !"

Then I go on to get my breakfast to have enough energy for the important day waiting for us. After breakfast , while returning our dishes, we get paper sheets to mark our courses. I write my name on it, take a deep breath and make crosses at Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Engineering and return the paper with shaking hands. Another very important decision that will change my life if I don't fit in, if I fail or if I just make one litte mistake. But I have to except my fate now, knowing I can't change it any way. And I don't want to be homeless and factionless, so I'll have to make it through initiation.

The sheets get checked by Hannah and Edward and after that they bring us to our first courses. I've got Biology first, I pick a seat in the first row and we instantly start with the theme of the biome forest. Our Biology teacher is called Gregory and he is very good ad explaining; I think he's got Communication too. I listen carefully and so the lesson is over in no time. Then we meet our next teacher, Lisa who we'll have Physics with. We stay in this room so I sit in the first row again, listening carefully and taking notes, witch I'll repeat at the dinner and in bed, preparing for the lessons on the next day.

At dinner, while repeating my notes very concentrated, Maya and Ruben ask me how my day was." Busy and exhausting but I learned some new stuff about trees and the earth. Did you know that there were trees once, almost as high as the compound ?" Maya and Ruben look shocked and turn silent but I explain them about the whole family of the redwoods, also known as sequoioideae. And as Maya asks wich language this is , Ruben and I answer at the same time:" That's Latin."," the old language of the Romans who were the most popular and mightiest antique people, who nearly ruled the whole world.", Ruben adds."But the Greeks invented the most names before the Romans, but got invaded by them, and the Romans took their language into their.", I finish and now both of them ask how I get to know such things without having any History classes."Well, before we had to decide, as we went to the library, I didn't had a clue about what I should choose and so I read much books about all of the fields that were available, and it looks like my brain kept all of the information." They both look very disappointed now and wonder, why I read all of them but I just answer with a smile:"I was bored, and I had time and so I read them to avoid having to make a choice which didn't help very long after dinner but I've done my decisions." With that we go to bed and after repeating my notes again and again, I finally get to sleep too.


	7. Chapter 7: Unusual Discovery

**Chapter 7: unusual Discovery**

Up early again, I'm making my way to the library on the next day, as I see a bunch of Erudite-scientists walking out of a laboratory, led by a known face; it's Jeanine Matthews, obviously annoyed by something. I wonder, if the scientists are the reason or something else, maybe bad experiment results. For the rest of the morning, I read some books about the topic, we would have in today's biology lesson; how photosynthesis is working and in the next lesson, we will try to build our own forests.

One hour later,I watch the sunset again, enjoying the silence of this little balcony, overlooking nearly the whole city, and if you wanted, you could see the fields, outside the fence, being crowded this early, with hard working Amity, taking care of the plants and being happy and friendly all the day.

Then I go take my breakfast, to officially start the day and learn some new things. I'm very excited on today since we will have our first Engineering lesson in the afternoon. Again, I sit next to Maya and Ruben and they are talking about their first lessons, as I decide to tell them from my sight in the early morning. „I did see an uncommon thing in today's early hours on my way to the library." They both stop talking and Maya asks:" What is it ? „ Ruben wants to know too so I say:" Well, I was walking towards the library to read a little about today's theme in Biology and I saw Jeanine walking out of a lab, looking very annoyed. " " Wait, you saw Jeanine ? ", Ruben asked,"What time was it ?" " Oh,I think about five o'clock. Why are you asking ?" "Because she normally does experiments a little later, at about six." " Did you stalk her or why do you know this, you nerd ?", Maya jokes and Ruben quickly defends hisself:" No ! Of course not. But my father works with her and since he does, he goes for work a little earlier, at about half past five." "Well, then she must do some secret things in there, wich need to stay hidden, working so early.", I think loud and the two nod, trying to figure what our leader is doing down there.

When it's time for our courses, we bring in our tablets and say goodbye to each other, promising to meet again at lunch to discuss this topic more.

In the lessons, I first could only think of my Discovery and why our leader would hide experiments, such important to recruit Erudite from other projects and working at a time, usually nobody's up. But soon I could concentrate again and listened carefully again, taking notes to repeat them later.

At lunch we meet and sit down in one corner of the dinning hall, in order to not be interrupted. We had started eating as Ruben asks:" So, what are your theories ?" Maya answers first:" I think, they're working on new technologies and no one should know of them before they're going to present it."

"Maybe a new weapon for Dauntless or another plant that was modified for Amity.", Ruben nods, but I thought of something different:" What if they're working on a new serum ? I've heard that they're starting to hunt down divergents and so they could be working on a serum to use at the initiation test, to prevent divergent pretending to be not." Both of them think for a while but Ruben suddenly says:"This is at the same time the best presumption and the scariest." "Watch out talking like this or someone will think you're divergent.",I warn but sadly he's right. „ I still don't know what's so bad about divergents.", Maya says and I answer:" They're not having aptitudes for only one faction but for more and so they can't be controlled by the system and that's what people are scared of." The rest of lunch we quietly eat ant then go back to our courses.

Today I've got my first lesson of Engineering and I'm super excited. I enter the room and sit down at my chair in the first row and soon the lesson starts. At first, our teacher tells a little about hisself and then we are asked to make a sketch of a simple desk lamp and I start with the base and continue with the arm and the holder for the light bulb. When we're finished, we're allowed to go and so I exit the room as one of the first people. The rest of the day we have some Physics and Chemistry again and then I've got time to repeat my notes. I go to bed early after a short dinner and some reading of Engineering books to improve a little. At the end of the day, I am very tired and fall asleep easily.


	8. Chapter 8:The week end of tests

**Chapter 8: the weekend of tests**

When the sun first touches the sky at the morning,

I'm already standing at my secret balcony and wondering, why no one else seems to come here ever. It's now three weeks ago, when I saw Jeanine up early and coming out of a laboratory. It's Sunday, the day on which the Tests of second part of initiation will start, for one week. It was announced, Physics to be the first Tests taken and I probably should be excited but for a strange reason, I'm not.

The Headquarters are getting busy and I notice, breakfast already started, looking at my watch and so I make my way to the dining hall, meeting Maya and Ruben. They are already used to me, being always up as first one and going to bed as last.

We're talking about courses and what we learned, as Ruben asks:" Have you ever seen Jeanine again since that day three weeks ago ?" I shake my head: "Strangely not, but I'm sure she is still working in this lab." "I'd like to know, what she's doing there.",

Maya says. "I think we will never know.", Ruben is right.

As the tests start, our Physics course gets guided into a room, a little smaller than our usual course room and we have to sit down. Then, we are handed some test booklets and we have the rest of the time till lunch for answering. I take out a pen and open the book.

The first question of test is about Gravity and the second of escape velocity ( how to get the one of Earth) and I write: the formula is the square root of two times the Earth's Gravity Force multiplied with

the mass of the earth divided by the radius of the earth.

In the third question, they want me to exactly calculate it; the Square root off:

24

-11 5,972kg*10

2*6,67*10 * _ =11,2km/s

6

6,37m*10

There also are other questions such as one about the Gravitational acceleration and more.

I finish after something that felt like three hours and am allowed to go. And again, everyone else needs more time. After one hour, it's time for breakfast and I already sit at our usual bank as Maya and Ruben enter the hall. " I knew, you would be the first one to finish.", Ruben greets. I answer:" I'm not the only one that has finished, there are others, already sitting here too." "So it looks like we're a little bit late.", Maya giggles.

The next Test is about Chemistry and we're again in the same room, having the rest of the time until dinner. We get booklets again and I read the quesrions, after getting my pen ready.

The first one is about Nuclear Fusion and kind of jokingly easy just asking what's the biggest object in our Solar System doing Nuclear Fusion. It's the sun of course. Next,

we should explain Nuclear Fusion on sun.

It's basically using incredibly high temperatures and high pressure, forcing Helium Atoms to overcome a force called Coulomb-Force ( it ensures, that two equal poled particles always disruple each other )

And fusionate to another Material, setting free very much energy. The pressure needs to be over 15 million Calvin.

I could answer the other questions easily too and soon, the day was over and I had time to repeat my Biology and Engineering skills.

The next day, after breakfast, we start with the Biology tests and it is all the same as yesterday.

One of the questions is to name one drug of the morphin group. Because I read about it yesterday, I remember one, called Diacetylmorphin. It's more commonly known as Heroin.

We should name the fear of great hights too. That's called Akrophobie.

Another question is to describe Trypophobia. It's the fear or disgust of objects with irregular patterns.

I finish early again and meet Maya and Ruben at the dinning hall again.

The next test is about Engineering and it starts with the question of the formula for calculating Torque; Force muliped with the length of the lever arm.

Then we have to Sketch much things and calculate some lengths, etc.

After I returned the last test booklet for today, I go to the library to read a book or two before I go to bed, not repeating some notes today.


	9. Chapter 9: Nothing is impossible

**The Decision Chapter 9: Nothing is Impossible**

Two days later all initiates are called to the main hall to publish the results of the second phase of initiation. The other days I spent with reading and struggling to decide which project theme to choose and of course, I couldn't come up with anything good.

I chose to wait with my choice until now; if I'm getting a partner or work alone, knowing I'd do better alone but having a partner means having one brain more to think of a theme.

I decide to stand next to Maya on my left and Ruben on my right to see first Hannah and Edward walking up to the balcony we were greeted on our very first day, then, a couple of Erudite at least the transferred don't know, followed by a silhouette I identify as Jeanine Matthews. It has been quite a long time since our first day I think, remembering all the stuff we had to learn as our leader starts speaking and everyone immediately turns quiet:" I'm happy to see that no one of you had to leave us during the first months but you still haven't made it through initiation yet. After today, the remaining ones of you are tasked to focus on an academic project or a thesis to solve its problem and find out a solution, useful for the whole city. You can make up your teams, each consisting of one up to three persons, with each other."

" But first the results of the second month of initiation; this time all on one screen and all in one rating.",One of those people, unknown to me, takes up the word.

We all look at the screen that now gets activated and it happens to be me, making the first place with the same points than one of the Erudite born. I can't believe this and start stumbling a little before I catch my balance again. Strangely no one had to leave in this stage ether. I remain rather quiet while everyone around me seems to party. In fact, I'm overwhelmed by being one of the best this year, but I have to figure out what my project will be about at first. I recognize everyone choosing a team or just a single partner to work with but, unless nobody asks me, I'll work alone.

For a few minutes, I'm left alone but suddenly, I feel a tap on my shoulder and by following with my turn, I see an Erudite Born girl, smiling at me and asking if we should work together. Even though I hadn't expected to get asked this question I say yes, hoping to get one more ally in this cruel society.

Her name is Sora and she is as friendly as her smile seemed to be. After a little smalltalk, we head to the library to figure out, what we will be working on.

Some quiet time of thinking later, Sora has a first suggestion:" What if we could speed up the heeling of wounds ?" That's actually quite a good idea but suddenly I have a suggestion too:" Or we could work on protheses. Maybe even with a sense of touch." Sora eyes widen:" But how are we going to do this ? Not even the professional Bio Engineers of Erudite can build protheses with a senesce of touch. That's impossible." " Nothing is impossible, trust me. We'll try and if we fail, we still can work on your idea."

We then get some protheses blueprints and study their technology. Sora has the idea to use electro magnetic sensors to imitate a sense of touch. I choose a book about those and their usage after we finish today's session.

We then go to bed.


	10. Chapter 10: electronmagnetic sense

**Chapter 10: electro magnetic sense**

The next days we worked the whole day in our groups and Sora and I had made a huge amount of progress as it appeared to be one day left until we had to hand in our projects. The only thing we were still working on was the placing of battery's. We managed to use electro magnetic sensors to create the ability to feel by spreading over 1000 little sensors one each hand and arm. Our prostheses was up to the elbow and mostly 3D printed.

Sora's parents, as they were Erudite, printed them for with their printer and could provide the sensors - of course they wanted to be with her daughter and not being ashamed for her daughter to fail initiation and become factionless.

So we were sitting there at the library and searching for a place for our batteries as a lighting of an idea hit my head. I jumped up and Sora, obviously surprised, did the same. „Are you alright ?", she askes as I have calmed down. "Oh, it's nothing, besides I just got an idea how to solve our little energy problem." „Tell me, what is it?", Sora's eyes light up. „What if we don't use batteries, but instead the protheses got its energy of the amputees muscle tension, detected on its stump ?"

After a while of silence and Sora finished thinking about my idea, she looked at me again, her face expressing great joy:" Sephora North, you. are. A. Genius. Nobody's ever tried something like that but it's a great idea !" „So let's start working, we don't have much time left."

For the rest of the day, we work on the tension detector again, making sure it's going to work safely.

At noon, we start modifying the program of our invention. As we finish, the clock shows 10pm, so we could still hand in our project but both of us are exhausted as hell so we decide to go to bed and hand it in tomorrow. Before we go to bed, we decide wich one of us will hand our work in with a game of Rock Paper Scissors,which of course, I loose.

Up early the next day, I take the whole protheses set with me, heading towards our classroom, where we should bring our finished projects to. As I arrive, no one is in the room. At the hallway, I see Edward, the teacher of the other initiation class, who turns at me as he sees me:" Oh, Hello Initiand, please bring your Project to Hannah, she's still working at the labs below at such early our. Good luck !" he turns and walks away. With the project I shouldn't take the stairs so I head to the lift. The glass doors open and I enter a slightly crowded cabin, where I catch the looks of most of the passengers or better, my cargo does. After a short drive, I exit as the doors open, walking towards the laboratory section ahead.

It takes a little time before I can spot Hannah through one of the big glass walls on both sides of the hallway. She's cleaning up a lab as I politely knock on the door. She opens and looks a little surprised, seeing me holding a robotic arm.

„Good Morning Hannah. Sora and I have finished our project. I'd like to hand it in.", I greet.

„Sure, is it a protheses ?", she asks

„It is, but it got additional functions."

Hannah marvels.

„Okay. So I'll take it and tomorrow your ratings will be published." She renters her lab and leaves me, standing in front of a closed door. I feel arkward so I take my time to explore this section of Erudite's Headquarters, continuing down the hallway.

_This Chapter is again short but action is going to start in the next chapter, I promise._


	11. Chapter 11: of bravery and intellect

**Chapter 11: of bravery and intellect**

At first I think it is an illusion, but as the smoke gets more dense, I walk faster, searching for its source.

It smells terrible and my eyes hurt of the soot.

Now running, I can hardly see deep black smoke, coming from the lab at the end of the hallway.

I rush inside, covering my mouth and nose with my sleeve, to extinguish the fire.

The door is drawn but I still have enough force in my arms to bend it open.

Inside the lab, there's a computer burning.

As my view scans the room for humans, I see a hand, laying on the floor behind the desk but nobody else. I rush over to see who it is but I can't believe my eyes as I identify the human as the one and only Jeanine Mathews. She's unconscious, laying on her side.

I approach her and check her pulse, if she's still alive. Her heart is beating, but I don't know how long it will last. Her spine feels unhurt so I open the door and carefully lift her up, carrying her bridal style out of the lab because otherwise, she would have died.

I lay her down in the hallway, making sure she's out of the smoke and run back into the lab, grab the fire extinguisher and after the fire is out, I run to the door open it wide and let the smoke escape.

Meanwhile I hear voices approaching us, shouting if there's somebody and if we're okay.

I try to answer with a loud help but I can just cough.

Too much smoke entered my lungs and I fell my consciousness disappearing. I stumble out of the room and just get a glimpse of three to four people running around the corner and to our leader, as I fall and my view darkens.

I feel dizzy but I won't have to throw up, I seem to be okay except for a stinging pain in my hands and ankles. After opening my eyes slowly, the white walls of Erudite hospital blend my sight.

A nurse who is waking through recognizes my consciousness and hurries to my bed.

„You're awake. How are you feeling ?"

I try to answer but my mouth and throat are dried out. I caugh.

As the nurse notices my trouble to speak, she turns to get a glass of water and as she returns, I down it gratefully. „ I'm going okay but what's with Miss Matthews?" The nurse looks surprised but answers:"I'm not allowed to give you information about that and you should know that."

„But I rescued her, I just want to know if she's alright." „I'm not allowed to talk to you about that, since you're okay, you can leave the hospital after a doctor looked over you a last time.", the nurse says slightly angry and disappears on the hallway.

I pull out my infusion and find my clothes neatly folded on a cupboard nearby. I want to approach it but after I stood up, my legs feel dizzy. Maybe because of laying a longer time. I wonder what day it is so I slowly manage to walk to a wall where a digital clock hangs. It's Tuesday, 2pm it says. Could I really been laying here for three days ?

Feeling my legs walking easier and easier I approach the cupboard and take on my clothes.

Shortly after I exit the room to a hallway leading to other medical dormitories.

At the end, there's a reception and I ask how long I'll have to wait for the doctor. I haven't heard about Ms. Matthews but it's none of my business, I think.

The doctor is about to come so I return to my room and sit on my bed. A big caught exits my lungs; it seems like there are still some Carbon monoxide particles left in my lungs.

Half an hour later, the doctor checked my breathing and said that I can go home. I ask him what's with Ms. Matthews and finally get an answer. She is still unconscious but in the room next door. With time, walking gets easier and so I slowly make my way to her room. As I enter, she's laying in bed in the center of the room. I approach her. If she's asleep, she looks more peaceful than ever.


	12. Chapter12:it is slilly to risk your life

**Chapter 12: How silly it is to risk your own life,just to save another**

Her face slightly dirty, her fair hair wildly standing up of her head, flat but regular breathing. I'm near her and almost can hear her silent caughs, caused by carbon monoxide particles.

She turns and I jump back, fearing she's awake, but she stays silent after the noise of her sheets while she turned. I wonder how somebody this beautiful can have such a bad reputation.

As I hear doctors approaching the room through the hallway, I take one last look at her, before I rush out, carefully watching out for people not to see me.

Half an hour later I carry my stuff to my bed, as Maya walks by;"Oh, hey, you're better. We're have you been ?", she asks.

„Yes, I am, otherwise I'd still lay in bed, in the hospital."

„Hospital ? What happened ?"

„Well, there was a little incident, nothing special."

„Nothing Special? Are you kidding ? You spent three days in hospital, in the middle of initiation. That truly Is something special. So tell me, what happened ? Sora said you wanted to hand in your project, but never returned.", I have never seen Maya more excited for somebody's answer to one of her questions.

"It's nothing interesting, really, just a fire in one of the hallways."

"A FIRE ? Nothing interesting ? Sephora North, you truly have a weird intention of uninteresting. Tell me, what happened exactly ?"

"We better go to the library to talk, not everyone has to know.", I suggest.

At the library, we both take a seat next to each other and I start telling my friend, what had happened that day. As I finished, Maya's Eyes were as wide as saucers.

"So,you, an initiant, saved the leader of Erudite from a fire!"

„Pssssssht ! Don't tell anyone, she wouldn't like to let everyone know she couldn't control the fire by herself.", I harshly remind her, asking myself if shouldn't have told her about the incident.

„Okay, Okay, but why didn't you just extinguish the fire and walk away, it wasn't your business to keep her safe, you risked your own life for hers."

"I-I don't know. It's- It's just that I saw her laying on the floor and I felt like helping her, I mean, she was unconscious, she could have died."

In this moment, I realize, that I didn't even have to think about my own life at the sight of Jeanine and there was a strange feeling in my stomach, thinking about the possible death of our leader. What is wrong with me ? Why do I seem to care more for this woman than for me ?

These thoughts keep me busy for the whole rest of the day, while I repeat the stuff we learned in the past months. A girl, just slightly taller than me approaches the table I'm sitting at and politely asks with a bright smile on her lips: " Excuse me, is there a seat at this table that is still free ?"

"Yes, take a seat please.", I politely offer her the chair next to me.

"I'm Chloe, aren't you Sephora North, the girl that worked on the protheses project with Sora Baker ?"

"Yes, but how'd you know, we've never met before ?"

"That's exactly how I know, just one initiant was absent at the presentation of our projects. It was you. "

"Yes, you caught me."

"But why weren't you there ? We had to present our projects with all the members of the group?"

I get slightly nervous at her question, knowing I can't just tell her the truth. I hurry to think of a lie instead and answer: " I got sick that day, the doctors believe it was because I was nervous." Even though I'm not likely to get nervous, yet alone sick because of a single presentation in front of people, I know that she can't know so I hope it's enough of an answer for her. Chloe nods and excuses herself after some other smalltalk to finish an assignment of her class.


	13. Chapter 13: no good comes without bad

**Chapter 13: no good comes without bad**

Later on, Chloe, Maya and Sora told me what happened during my absence; the presentations were good and we got the first place. Sora even told me, Hannah and the other testers were planning to mass-produce our protheses, just a little bit modified, of course.

Before our final examen, we learn together, all five and wishing everyone good luck, we start our tests two days later, opening the booklets we are given. Thanks to our learning sessions, I can easily answer all questions, wishing and begging for my other friends to stay in Erudite and don't get factionless.

The next day, we are called to see the results of the tests and Maya, Chloe ,Ruben and I got through. Sora, however didn't do quite as good as we thought; she is only place 25 and way below us, which we can't understand; during our project and learning, she knew most of the answers to questions, without even hearing their start.

We wait another day, before we are called to the dinning hall again, where Hannah and Edward are standing at the very same balcony, they stood on a month before. The screens awake to show our final results and what they show, shocks all of us; I've got a score of 120, Maya got 98, Ruben 100, Chloe 111 but Sora just got 89.

"Oh No! Sora didn't make it. How can this be?", Maya whispers horrified.

"There must be a way to keep her in Erudite.",says Ruben.

"I'm sorry, but there isn't. The rules are set and nobody can change them, not even Edward and Hannah.", I answer coldly.

"Then we must have the greatest time of our lives before Sora has to leave.",Chloe shouts and pulls all five of us out of the dinning hall, leaving cheering as well as crying initiants behind.

She leads us to the Spa and as we enter, we all feel relief from all bad. It's warm but still comfortable. Starting with a massage, we all loose any worry. Next we enter a very hot room, where workers from Abnegation massage us with foam and Oils and hot stones. The last step is a sauna session, cooling and heating our bodies.

Well treated we exit the spa and aim at our dorm, as Ruben suddenly has an Idea:" I don't know how you're going to live in the future, but maybe there are books at the library that ease you live out there."

"If we'll have the opportunity, we will help you with everything,we can.", Maya nods and we all agree; we have to help Sora, surviving outside as well as each other, surviving inside.

"I appreciate your help and I'm very thankful to have you as friends but I'd like to talk to my family before I leave.", Sora speaks for a long time.

„Take your time, you know where you can find us.", Chloe says calmingly and we return to our dorm, leaving Sora on her way to her parents' apartment.

„She must be scared. How will she survive outside the factions ?", I ask while we stroll down the hallways.

„Maybe she can find Abnegation and gets help from them.",Ruben answers and Maya adds:" She could go to amity too; maybe they will give her excessive food from time to time, if she asks politely."

Chloe stops walking with us and is now standing in the middle of the hallway. She waits until we've noticed and turned our head to her, her facial expression angry but at the same time a horrified one.

„Could you please just..don't talk about Sora. You talk like it's normal that she has to leave us but it's not, it's terrible." a single tear rolls down her cheeks and I realize she's right.

„I'm sorry, we didn't mean to.", Maya apologizes.

Both of them look each other in the eyes and say nothing for a while.

„Let's just go to bed, we don't have to be awake as early as usual tomorrow, we all could use a little sleep,I guess.",I send Ruben a thank-you-smile, for saying that - and he's right.

_Yes, I know that I promised to publish more information about Sephora but it isn't that that easy to bring it in, believe me._


	14. Chapter 14:Suits and dresses

**Chapter 14: Suits and dresses**

The next day, we are woken by our fellow initiants who are jumping through our dorm, jelling and dancing.

„What's going on ?", Chloe asks still a little sleepy.

„I don't know", I hear from Maya in the bed next to me. I turn around and get nearly blinded or at least, it feels like that.

The sun's up and that is still a little new to me, being used to get up before sunrise everyday. We get ready quickly and take breakfast, still hearing some initiants , being noisy and a few seconds later, are asked to be quiet by older Erudite.

As I see Ruben looking at his phone, I get over to him and ask what's goin on. He answers:" You

haven't heard off it ? The leadership has announced to host a gala to celebrate to end of initiation."

"That's awesome !" Maya yells and jumps up.

" Come on, we have to go shopping.", Maya pulls Chloe and me with her before we can say anything.

She takes us to Erudite Arcades and half an hour later, I find us sitting in a gown-boutique and Maya trying on dresses. She runs through the whole store and picks up dresses with various patterns. She placed us as judges and asks for our opinion for every dress she tries. At the end, she can't decide so she pulls Chloe through every pile of dresses and searches a dress for her. I never had a great taste, why I just say "that's good", or " try something different", from time to time, but as Maya comes for me, I jump back and finally decide to say something.

"Listen Maya, I understand you're excited and everything is alright, I assure you, but please, don't waste your time on me. I just need to process the story with Sora and I REALLY don't want to go to this gala. I've never worn a dress either, nor can I dance. I can't even see a reason for the leaders to host a gala, I mean seriously, haven't they gotten better things to do, such as finishing some weird serum or stuff like this ? They are the ones that thought us to ever use our time wisely."

I'm a little out of breath as I finish, but everything I said was true. Maya looks like she knows this too but as she finally says something,she is

still trying to convince me.

"If you have to process stuff, you should get yourself distracted, best done by a big party."

"Please. I really don't want to celebrate now.", I tell her, maybe a little to harsh.

"Maybe we should at least try a dress on you ?", Maya asks, still not even showing the littlest signs of letting her plan down. Looks like she really wants us three on that gala. „It's like I said; I've never worn a dress in my life."

„You're not going to get away without at least trying a dress.", Maya says and the smirk on her face is creeping me out.

„Okay, even if I'd be better with a suit.", I finally agree, hoping I won't regret it.

Twenty minutes later, we already tried three dresses and I don't know, how people could enjoy walking in these for more than an hour.

„This suits you perfectly.", Maya declares after I exited the changing cabin in a royal blue wrap dress.

„But I'd like a suit better to be honest."

The dress is slightly more comfortable as the others we've tried and I have to say that I kind of like it. We don't have time to try a suit and so I buy the last dress and we go back home.

_Please imagine the final dress is the blue one from the Wonder Woman movie._


	15. Chapter 15: Surprise at the gala

**Chapter 15: Surprise at the gala**

On the next day, it's the day of the gala and I'd like to stay in bed and just sleep and read all the day, but Maya and Chloe start to disturb me, and prevent me from sleeping much longer. They pull my sheets away and shout: " It's time to party, get up !"

I could already kill them, and the gala didn't even start yet.

"First, it's not exactly time to party until 10pm, and second, do you really think I'd care missing an event I can't describe different than a waste of time ?"

They turn silent, of which I am very grateful, but as soon as I can enjoy it, they start annoying me again.

I can't sleep much longer so I get up and stroll to the bathroom, wishing I could renter my dream of flying over the city. Making a mental note to search for lecture about lucid dreams in the library later, I enter the dinning hall, hearing every teenage Erudite I see, talking about the gala. In fact, I did some research and studied every great scientist who is likely to attend this gala, just to not get caught in some kind of awkward situation, which apparently seems to be my hidden talent.

At breakfast, Maya and Chloe but Ruben and his friends too keep asking me about the gala, as if they wanted to annoy me more, even if I don't quite know if this is still possible. Luckily, my pancakes are eaten very soon and so I go to the library, planning to read the rest of the day off we got, before we'd be assigned jobs in the following days.

A couple of hours later, two hands close my eyes from my back and Maya wants to get me ready for the gala. "What else should we do ? I'm not likely to take half an hour to take on this stupid dress."

A little Make-up and hair-doing of course !", Maya yells excited. Besides the fact everyone in this library is watching us right now, I'm not sure what to answer. We return to our dorm and Maya pulls me, along with a big bag, into the bathroom.

Hundreds of different containers with who-knows-what inside are standing on the cupboard in front of us and according to Maya's reaction, my facial expression must be pathetic.

"You never tried Make-up, right ?", she asks and I thank her mentally to break up this awkward silence.

I simply shake my head and suddenly, Maya reaches out and grabs my face, starting to work on it. Praying for it to at least don't look like a puppet, I wait for ten minutes until Maya turns the mirror so I can look at myself.

"I have to say it looks better that I expected."

"Thank you.", Maya smiles with that bright smile she's known for.

My hair curled and my dress ironed, I'm standing next to Maya and Chloe, waiting for the elevator to open it's glass doors.

Stumbling forwards in a pair of Maya's high heels, I attend the big room alongside my three friends, carefully guided by a chuckling Chloe.

" Why would anyone bother to wear these for even one step ? I mean my Torus already hurt after like 100m."

" Get used to it, most Erudite women wear them."

"Honestly, they should be the ones knowing that they're damaging your whole feet.", logic doesn't want to hit my brain.

" I don't know, it just became standard someday."

With that we go on with getting to know friends of Chloe and Ruben. I'm drinking some orange juice, as it suddenly gets silent in the crowded room. I turn around from the bar and, through the crowd, I can spot a familiar,platin blond head, entering the room.

I'm still stunned as Jeanine Matthews enters the gala, greeting everyone. Maya walks up to me with a teasing,fierce smirk.

"Look who is raised from the dead. I bet she owes you know."

"Of course she doesn't. I rescued her because she could have died. Be grateful she's alright.", I don't even know why I'm defending her.

" Go to her. Say hello", Maya pushes me through the cloud.

After searching the whole room, I can't find her and as I'm going back to Maya and the others, I catch the light of the moon in the corner of my eye, coming from an open door, leading to a balcony. Standing at its railing, our leader is looking at the stars, alone.

I slowly approach her, hoping she won't remember me.

"Looks like you're better, Miss Matthews. "

She turns to me, who is now standing next to her at the railing.

"How would you know I ever was not ? Miss...?"

"North, my name is Sephora North."

" Miss North ?"

Well, I couldn't I come up with a more awkward way of small talk, but I'm hurrying to think of a story , I can tell her.

"I. I uhm heard people talking about you wouldn't come tonight so I assumed you were ill."

"You should know, Miss North, people are telling all kinds of things and they are barely true. So keep focusing on yourself."

Just made things worse, nice job !

"Sure, I will.", I start to understand why people keep telling she's not a human, but a machine now. Her way to speak, her body language; everything is cold and reduced to its minimum and her words are all carefully chosen.

After some time, I ask: " Do you think someday, we are going to fly to the moon or travel to the stars ?"

" It wouldn't be surprising if we'd reach out for the next step of colonising our environment."

Again, just a few words describing everything, she has to say.


	16. Chapter16:Lucid dreams and unknown faces

**Chapter 16: Lucid dreams and unknown faces**

_Jeanines POV: _

This girl seems known to me but I can't identify her.

I probably have heard her name someday, but I'm sure I didn't know her face, even though it seems familiar. How could she know I was ill if I told nobody ? This just doesn't make sense at all. Maybe she saw me after the fire ? I'm thinking to much about this and I've been long enough at this gala.

I turn as the girl, Sephora, faces me and smiles:" Have a great night, Ms. Matthews."

At least, she's kind and not that ugly, I think as I shoot her a casual " thank you, have a nice night too.", as I told so many people who were harassing me before.

Back in my apartment, laying in bed I have to think all the time of where I knew this girl. I think I remember one girl at the list of this year's initiants with the last name North. Making a mental note to do some research about her the next day, I drift into a dreamless sleep.

_Sephora's POV:_

After Jeanine left the balcony, I decide to take a look at the stars again. I remember some of the constellations of a book I read during initiation. That's when I finally realise that the choosing ceremony was almost three months ago. So many things have changed since then; I became more intelligent, even more calculating,I wore high heels and visited a gala.

I wonder how I'm going to live my life in the future. It's unlikely, but still possible to get factionless at the littlest mistake or one wrong word and I still haven't got a job yet. I hope Jeanine didn't notice I was lying about me, knowing she was ill. So many thoughts are racing through my head that I don't even notice Maya approaching me,and asking " There you are. How did it go with Jeanine ? Did you tell her you rescued her ?"

"Of course I didn't. She'd be ashamed if she found out she was rescued...by an initiant. We just spoke, did some small talk and then she went home again.

Nothing special." She's asking me out again.

"You just spoke to Jeanine Matthews after being about three months here. That is special.", Maya's

energetic again.

" Could we please go home ? My feet hurt and I'm very tried.", I'm rather begging than asking her. Thank God she's tired too and on the way out,we find Chloe with a broken heel. We all take the elevator back down and as soon as we hit the pillows, we sight of tiredness. After cleaning me up and finally getting rid of these awful heels and the dress, I fall asleep in record time.

The next day, I wake up, well rested and full of Energy again. Maya and Chloe aren't up yet so I decide to go to the library and visit my secret balcony on the way. It's quiet everywhere and just a few people are up, yet alone working.

The sun is still rising as I enter the balcony, enjoying the fresh air that smells like nature.

Its this silence I love, the feeling of flying when the wind howls in my face. Here's the only place I feel truly free.

After enjoying the morning for some minutes, I go to the library to read, when I remember to search for lucid dreams;

"A lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. During a lucid dream, the dreamer may gain some amount of control over the dream characters, narrative, and environment; however, this is not actually necessary for a dream to be described as lucid.

The first step to lucid dreaming is recognizing one is dreaming. This recognition might occur in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is one of the few areas deactivated during REM sleep and where working memory occurs. Once this area is activated and the recognition of dreaming occurs, the dreamer must be cautious to let the dream continue but be conscious enough to remember that it is a dream. While maintaining this balance, the amygdala and parahippocampal cortex might be less intensely activated.To continue the intensity of the dream hallucinations, it is expected the pons and the parieto-occipital junction stay active."

It is interesting to read about lucid dreams and their profitables, if you just had one, like me.

I spend the rest of the time until evening on the library, reading all kinds of books about the brain and how it reacts within sleep.

I wonder if Maya or Chloe had a lucid dream before.

At lunch time, I sit with Ruben and Maya, Chloe being with her parents.

I ask:" Have you ever had a lucid dream ?"

„Once, I guess but that's a long time ago.", Ruben answers.

Maya had one the last week and we all agree on trying to have a lucid dream tonight together.

Later, Chloe comes back from her parents and sits with us, drinking a fuzzy drink. We tell her of our plans and she agrees to try for a lucid dream tonight with us. For the rest of lunch we remain quiet, eating our food.

Information above, as well as those from the initiation tests are taken from Wikipedia or equal sources and tend to be true ( I'm sorry if not, I tried ).


	17. Chapter 17: a home in friendship

**Chapter 17:a home in friendship **

A light shines, I hear steps, but no normal steps; I could recognize these shoes everywhere, they belong to Jeanine Matthews. A blue stripe of light comes across my sight. It's navy blue, but my sight is still blurry and I can't see clear objects, as if a pice of cloth lied on my face.

Suddenly, she starts to speak: „You failed the test. You're not as intelligent as I thought you'd be."

What does she say this ? This is not true, I passed the tests and I Am NOT dumb, right ?

Wait.

This can't be real, I know that I passed the test with a good score and why would Jeanine Matthews ever care about an initiant ? But if this wasn't real, what else could it be ? A Simulation ? A Drug ? No, I know what this is. This is a dream, a lucid dream and I finally noticed I'm sleeping. Technically I now should be able to change everything here like I want to. But how ?

I finally start to see clearly now and realise we're standing in the lobby of Erudite, but no one's here.

Jeanine is standing a few steps away from me, her iconic cold expression focused on my irritated face.

Let's try to teleport. What about Dauntless ? I finally could visit my old home. Even if I'm missing no one and no one is missing me probably, I kind of missed this place. Erudite Headquarters start to spin slightly and slowly, they become the concrete walls of the Chasm. No one is here either, except for me. I look down the black void of the chasm, remembering how my friends used to tell horror-stories about the ghosts of those who had suicided here. I never believed them tho. This isn't real so I shouldn't get hurt in any way if I jump. But there's a way making it funnier. Wings. I think about how cool it would be to be able to fly around Chicago and never walk for more then half an hour and the next second, I feel myself pulled backwards to fall, due to a big weight pulling on my back. I suddenly have wings and I jump to test them, but they shoot me way to high in the sky. I can see whole Chicago from here, even Erudite Headquarters and Amity. I surprisingly have no wounds for flying right through the roof of a building.

Flying over the city is the most amazing thing of the world. And I choose to fly to Erudite as a spark of light suddenly brings me back to reality.

Woken by Maya and Chloe I jump up, surprised by the lights, shining in my sleepy eyes.

"Are you okay? You've slept way to long for your standards."

"Yeah uhm, I'm okay but what time is it ?"

"It's 6am. Did it work?"

"What do you mean ?"

"The lucid dreams we tried for last night."

"Oh yes, it was strange but it worked. What about you ?"

„ I got one.", Chloe comes to word.

" Come on, you have to hurry, jobs are assigned today."

As I usually am a morning person, it is strange for me to feel the longing for the warm, cozy bed. This morning in general is different than the others, I just don't know why.

Breakfast might have been like every morning, but this strange feeling in my gut comes up again as Hannah and Edward speak to us one last time:"Good morning initiants. Today you are assigned a job in order to use your skills in the most productive way. We calculated your qualities, using your test scores. Please meet at the floor you will be assigned, directly after you've been assigned your apartments."

Hannah continued with reading the names of our fellow initiants. Maya ended up in History research, Ruben as Astrologist and Chloe and I both got Bio-Chemical Research. We won't all work in one place, but a faction is supposed to be your family,and I found one in my friends, even if I never expected it, I've found a home in Erudite.


	18. Chapter 18: Exhausting day ahead !

**Chapter 18: exhausting day ahead !**

The glass doors open and reveal the huge apartment district of Erudite headquarters. Walking through empty hallways, searching for the apartment Chloe and I were assigned. Clean hallways lead to endless doors, one of them showing number 348. I swipe the keycard and the door reveals a light blue and white painted room with two beds and a small table. We enter and around the corner there's an open door leading to the bathroom.

"Look, this view is incredible.", Chloe calls out. She is standing next to a glass door, which leads to our balcony. I follow her and she was right, it's not as high as my secret balcony near the library, but it's definitely fascinating. I go back to the main room, inspecting the interior of our new home. The minimalistic beds are neatly wrapped in light blue sheets, a desk lamp and a small plant placed on each of the two white nightstands ,standing next to the beds.

A cupboard is standing on a royal blue wall, next to our bathroom door, it's made from white painted wood and decorated with a single plant in a gray flowerpot with the Erudite symbol engraved, a with mosaics decorated bowl and books of course.

Our new bathroom is rather luxurious, with cream coloured marble and a stone bathtub. We've got a huge sink with a golden water tap. Under the sink, there's a cupboard, filled with towels, embroidered with Erudite's symbol. We quickly fill in our clothing and change after another, to finally start working tomorrow.

Newly dressed,Chloe and I enter the hallway to the science labs, where the rest of the initiants assigned to this job are waiting.A sound is heard and behind us the elevator doors open and a middle aged man exits the vehicle; suddenly, everyone turns silent. He is wearing a blue lab coat with a dark blue chino and a white shirt. His short black hair was roughly pushed back and he is wearing black,square-formed glasses. He walks past us and proceeds to a door in front of us. Then he clears his throat: " Alright. My name is Johnson and I'll be your supervisor." He mentions us to follow and we all walk through the glass doors. On the other side, we enter a large laboratory, clad with the same clean white walls and the bright lights as everywhere else in Erudite headquarters.

There are a lot of tables placed in lines and one table is standing in front of all of them.

"This will be your workplace for the next few weeks. After that, you'll be assigned to projects,led by older Erudite, where you will be assisting the scientists in order to get known to the practical use of what you learned in initiation.",he continues. "I expect you here tomorrow at 7am. You can go now."

Next, I follow Chloe to dinner. Sitting at "our" table again, Maya and Ruben start reporting how their day was . They got to test their theoretical and practical skills too.Usually, when we've finished eating,we still talk a little before going to bed, but Chloe is too tired and stands up to go to bed. I follow her, tomorrow is important, we'll need enough sleep.

Back on our new apartment, I notice she's pale and got glassy eyes.

"You're not well are you ?", I ask as she comes out of the bathroom.

"No, not really. I've got a headache. I'm just going to bed,hoping to be better tomorrow, otherwise I'll have to call in on the first day and I won't let that happen."

Poor Chloe.

"Is there anything I can do to help you ?",I ask.

"You almost sound like an Abnegation.", she tries to laugh,but a heavy cough escapes her bronchi and it doesn't sound healthy,"But no,thank you there's nothing you can help with. I'll just need to rest, that's all."

I'm getting ready for bed as she disappears in her sheets, coughing and swearing about her stupid bronchi.

As I hop under my sheets, I feel a scratch in my throat too and my nostrils are far from clear.

Hoping it won't get worse until tomorrow, I slowly pass away.


	19. Chapter 19:Little by little one goes far

**Chapter 19: Little by little, one goes far**

A week later, the alarm clock rings and I hear a loud, dull sound, indicating Chloe just fell out of the bed.

"You didn't break yourself anything did you ?"

"Mhhhh...No, I think not.", she answers. This definitely hurt. My gaze meets the alarm and I see it's already 6am.

"Oh fuck, Chloe get up, we're late. We're too late."

I jump out of bed and run into the bathroom,

stubbing my toe at the doorframe.

Nice way to start a day.

Running to the sink I start brushing my teeth and drying my face, Chloe has suddenly noticed she should hurry and runs to me into the bath. I'm finished there so I continue choosing my clothes for today; a light blue jumpsuit with my ballerinas. Chloe has finished in bath now, so I proceed to get dressed in the bathroom. Ten minutes later, we took ourselves a piece of bread, eating it while running down the hallway to the science labs.

Even though we were already worked in, Mr. Johnson told us to wait for him today in the hallway instead of in the laboratory itself. I don't really know why, but most probably because we get to work with older scientists today.

White halls rush alongside us, as we run, or better jogg, through Erudite's hallways. I'm surprised Chloe is able to hold up to me, a ex-Dauntless who was trained to be able to run for hours. Maybe I was not supposed to, but I kept my daily habit of working out, which is why I'm still rather muscular.

We finally reach our group, standing next to a door and luckily,Mr Johansson hasn't arrived yet. I lean against the walls. Some of the others start chatting but I don't know them. I just regained by breath as I see Mr Johansson walking up to us.

We enter the room in silence and sit down at our places.

Now my new life is officially starting with a new job and a new apartment.

He begins explaining to us what we will have to do while working with these scientists and suddenly, Mr. Johansson checks his watch. At the exact same Moment, someone knocks on the door and as the door opens, I don't dare to believe my eyes as I see Jeanine Matthews walking inside of our classroom.

She walks up to Mr Johansson and he finally goes on talking:" That's all you'll need to know. Ms. Matthews is now going to explain the rest.", with that he steps back behind his table and sits down, not missing one single word of our leader:

"Yes, thank you, Mr. Johansson. You indeed have a very important day in front of you. It represents the start of your new life. Not anymore as initiants, but as scientists. You will assist Erudite scientists, but you will have the opportunity to get famous for yourself."

The crowd starts whispering within her Pause of talking, but as she starts to speak again, everyone turns silent.

„Im now going to assign you to your jobs."

She went on with the names of about five initiants. Then Chloe got mentioned and I listened closer. "Chloe Bennett will be working at DNA-Research with Mr. Connor." Some other initiates were mentioned after, but I really started to listen again as my name was called out.

" And Sephora North is going to work at Aptitude Research with me."

Stop.

I did not expect this.

I get to work with our Leader ? To be honest, I thought no one gets to work with her, until they did something remarkable and I did the very opposite. I told her I assumed she was ill but Jeanine Matthews is never ill. Although it like to know how she does this, I can't believe what just happened.

Chances for this to happen are like 1/1000000.

" That would be all for today.Please wait here for your instructor at 5:50am tomorrow. You are dismissed."

Still shocked as hell, Chloe and I proceed to the library, to catch up on our new jobs. I am very grateful for the distraction as I can't believe Jeanine chose me out of everyone to work with her.

On the way, Chloe asks me:" Are you okay ? You got silent after the assignment earlier. Is something wrong?"

Shrugging my shoulders, I answer:" No, of course not. I just can't believe she wants me to work with her."

Chloe shakes her head in disbelief and smiles at me.

" You've got the highest score in initiation. Who else should she choose ? Now come on, we got to be prepared for tomorrow."

"Maybe you're right."

After some very interesting books of faction aptitude and DNA- encryption, we get dinner and go to bed early, as obviously no one of us wants to be late for tomorrow.


	20. Chapter 20: Unlikeliest Choice

**Chapter 20: unlikeliest Choice**

These steps again. I still can't see anything and the regular sounds of her heels, hitting the ground at every step of hers are the only thing I sense. A navy blue stripe crosses my sight and the view gets clear.

Jeanine is standing in front of me, her arms crossed and her face as cold as always.

„Even a Child is more intelligent than you are. You are useless. It was a mistake to assign you to my work."

She turns and walks away.

I wake up, breathing harsh and confused.

Why do I dream of this so often ?

The most logical answer would be psychological stress, but I don't think that's my case.

I try to soften my breathing, regaining regularity, but my hard noises have already woken Chloe, who slowly pulls herself up and searches for the source of the noise.

„What the hell are you doing Seph ?", she rubs her face, throwing back her hair and stands up, walking over to me, to sit on the corner of the bed.

„I just had this dream. Again. There's no reason for dreaming the same thing again and again if there's no psychological stress. But then why do I dream it so often ?"

I lean my head against Chloes and she starts to think out loud.

„What did you dream exactly?"

„ I dreamed about Jeanine, she was standing in Erudite headquarters and accused me of being dumb. She even said it was a mistake to let her work with me."

„Oh Seph. There's no chance she would get to say that. You're brilliant and trust me, because I should know it best. We did great work in initiation. You don't have to worry about such things.", she carefully rubs my back and I start to feel relieved.

„Thank you, I fell better now, but you should go back to sleep now Chloe, it's 2am."

„Yes I know, but you go back to sleep now too. And don't dare to dream such bullshit again.", she smiles.

I hear her go back to bed as I lay down again, hoping to either dream nothing, or at least dream of something nice.

Two and a half hours later, I wake up again. The sun hasn't risen yet, but I can see a little streak of light at the horizon behind the fence. Some people say, they've seen light behind it, but that is unlikely to be true. If there was life, in the wasteland behind the fence, they would either be living in ruins, or be to highly evolved to interfere with us.

Chloe is still asleep, but since our alarm is going to ring in ten minutes, I'm going into the bathroom to get ready. I'm nearly finished as the sound of our alarm goes through our apartment, followed by Chloes swearing. She's definitely not a morning person.

We soon are ready and this time, we have got the time to get normal breakfast, where Ruben and Maya tell us, what they are going to do today.

Maya is going to do some research for a certain century, they will tell her and Ruben will search the sky for star constellations tonight.

We are half an hour early as we arrive at our meeting place. No one is here yet,not even Jeanine herself, but three minutes after we arrived, she turns around the corner and looks obviously surprised as she sees us.

"Well I didn't expect you to be this early, but as you are already here, we could start now, shall we ?"

I shortly nod to Maya and Jeanine and I get to work.

In silence, we walk down endless amounts of hallways before we arrive at a single door at the end of a hallway. She takes out a keycard form her lab coat's pocket and slides it through the keycard- reader. The light turns green and the door opens, revealing a huge laboratory. Our Leader enters and the lights go on immediately.

„So what is it, that we will be working on ?", I carefully ask. She starts the computer and sits down on a chair next to her desk.

"We will invent a device that, if applied to the patient's blood circulation, heals wounds."

"You mean like Nano-bots ?"

This is going to be fun. Building Nano-bots was something I ever wanted.

" Yes, Indeed something like this."

The next three Days, I spend planing and calculating with Jeanine.

Until one day,it is lunch time and she turns to me:" Go if you are hungry, I won't eat lunch today."

"Me neither, we should continue working."

She looks at me with surprise,"Are you sure ?", she asks.

"I am. We've got no time to loose so close to our goal."

"Pass me the hard drive then. I'll program the algorithm."

I pass her how she asked and wonder:"What should I do then?"

"You can figure out a way to test them."

"You mean we're going to test them on me ?", that's why she wanted to work with an Initiant, she couldn't ask this from the older Erudite scientists.

"Yes, I do. Do you have a problem with that.", her cold gray eyes bore in mine.

Not wanting to disappoint her, I quickly answer: "No, No of course not."

"Then we can start, shall we ?", she hands me a scalpel. Not that I've done anything like this before, but it's surprisingly easy to cut my arm. The wound is not really deep but it's starts bleeding automatically. I don't feel pain, somehow.

Jeanine injects me the Nano-bots and I feel an impulse running through my veins. Suddenly, the bleeding stopps and the wound gets closed by a thin layer of something that looks like a fried egg's protein, what the device technically does. My lab partner looks at the data in the tablet, and all trough her expression is cold, I can see pride in her eyes.

"We did it !", I smile.

"Yes,we did. I'm finished here then, please clean up, then you'll be allowed to take your free time."

That's not really friendly. But nothing else I expected from a women which is said to have no heart,no feelings. To work like a machine, timed like a clockwork and always success orientated, alone driven by logic and intelligence.

I somehow look up to her, because of the respect, that's payed to her, probably. She only focuses on the important things, never spends time needlessly.

That evening, I go to bed early because I'm exhausted as a human being can be. I'm near sleep as Chloe enters the apartment.

"Already finished then ? Tell me, how did it go with Jeanine ?", she asks excited.

"Mhhh. Nothing. We just finished and she went of.", I somehow feel more exhausted than before and turn in order to finally get some rest.

"Well, get some sleep then. But you'll have to tell me tomorrow.", I hear her say as she goes to bed too.

The next day, I tell her everything at breakfast as a notification reaches my device. It's a Tablet we all got to save data or communicate.

"You were assigned to work at lab 1569, work begins in half an hour."

"That's unfortunate, I've got to go, I was assigned newly.", I rush out of the dinning hall and proceed to the lab. I enter and loads of pairs of eyes lay on me. I either just entered the wrong lab or I'm going to work with a bunch of old Erudite. I'm about to ask if I'm right here as our leader enters the room from another door.

"I see you finally arrived. Let's get started then.", she turns and walks into the lab. The scientists and I follow her, both surprised and disoriented.

Jeanine explains they've been working on a device to make Dauntless troops and objects invisible. They've created a kind of a coat that breaks the light around the hidden objects and reflects the image of the world behind it at the same time.

As they'll still need energy to power the reflection, and Jeanine wants me to try to help them. Because I was able to build the Nano-bots, she said.

At the end of the week, I have found a way, together with the other scientists, to let the coat create its own energy. I'm heading to the dining hall to grab some dinner with Chloe, who I haven't talked to in a while because of the project, as I get called to Jeanines office.

That's either good news, or she's going to make me factionless. Great !

I knock on her door and she opens, clearly disappointed. I enter and she mentions me to take a seat across her table, which stands in front of a big window showing the whole city. Her walls are all painted in royal blue and her floor is made out of white marble. Bookshelves are hung everywhere and I'd bet her books are all in alphabetical order. I'm slightly impressed.

" You were wrong.",She says as I finally get my gaze off of her panorama window.

"Excuse me ?",I carefully ask.

Please don't kill me !

"The coat project. It didn't work the way you told them to go."

Shit. That will be my last hour then.

"I'm sorry but I.I don't understand." There I am making a complete fool of myself again.

"The Generator you created. It doesn't even work but is also a great risk to the users health. How could you even think of exposing people to that kind of radiation ?", she remains calm however but I can sense her anger.

I don't know what to say, so I stutter: "I. I'm so so sorry. I didn't know that this would happen. I-I'll go pack my things then. I'm gone till dawn."

Embarrassing. AWESOME !

"There's no need for you to leave. I will forgive you this time, but only this one time."

Well, THAT was unexpected. The first part she's angry with me and then she spares me ? What the actual fuck ? I think I should be grateful for this so I hurry to get out of here.

Some time later I sit with Maya and Chloe to eat evening as they ask me what I did today. I tell them from the awkward meeting in Jeanine's office and both of them react like I did.

„This is not only the most embarrassing thing I've ever heard of, but the most strange thing to."

„And the most unlikeliest thing for Jeanine to do.",Maya adds.

We nod in agreement.

„As long as I can remember, Jeanine never spared anyone. Not even the oldest or most famous people that made mistakes."

„Not even the Initiants ?", Maya asks.

So why did she spare you ?", Chloe thinks out loud.

„That's the question of the day.", I say as I bring back my Tablet to head to our apartment.

„Im going to bed now. Do you come with me ?", I ask Chloe.

„No, not yet. I've still got my desert."

On my way back to our apartment, I can't stop thinking about Chloe's question. Why on earth should Jeanine Matthews, leader of Erudite, ever spare me, a simple Initiant ? That just doesn't make sense at all. Nobody ever gets a special treatment from her, not even her nearest friends and colleagues, if Jeanine ever had friends.

Of course it's fairer this way, but it leaves me questioning.

At home, I continue thinking about what happened today at my bed time routine and even when I try to sleep. This never happened before, so nobody could help me.

Jeanines POV:

It's a few hours later and I'm still questioning my decision to spare this girl. It's not just unlikely for me, but irrational and illogical. She did a mistake and mistakes should be punished, but instead I didn't even gave her a task as punishment. Maybe because I knew her from somewhere ?


End file.
